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“Motor city” is another name for Detroit, but “detroit” is only part of the name for the waterway given by the French explorer Cadillac when he led the first Europeans to settle “Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit” on a bank of “le détroit du lac Érié,” the strait of Lake Erie), linking Lake Huron and Lake Erie; historically, the strait included the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River.
Some time after departing the Cuyahoga, we pass this mysterious site. Any ideas? I’ll identify it at the end of this post.
If you’re not at the helm, straits bring the treat of relatively close passage with other traffic, like Dorothy Ann and Pathfinder here.
Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial is a 352′ monument we can all live with, sans controversy.
As we approach the center of the contemporary city of Detroit, traffic and industry intensify. I’d never noticed GLW’s glowing slag heaps, like crafted flows of lava.
On the Windsor side, Frontenac transfers payload . . not sure what. Salt maybe?
On the American side, 1000′ Edwin H. Gott is likely discharging Superior ore or taconite.
Sturgeon Bay-built Sam Laud watches from the Rouge. Laud, the namesake, moved from shop painter and riveter to CEO of GATX.
Folks on the bridge of Algoma Olympic, Port Weller-built and down bound here just south of the Ambassador Bridge, must be experiencing the frustration of having to worry about devil-may-care recreational boaters. Recently, a high profile meeting of stake holders was held at Port Huron to deal with difficult small boat operators, one in particular who decided to play chicken with a freighter .
Last year this China-built tug was called Victorious; now she’s know as Leo A. McArthur, and as then, she pushes hot asphalt contained in John J. Carrick.
Patricia Hoey (built 1949) is a good example of the extended life experienced by freshwater boats.
A McAsphalt unit like Leo A. McDonald, Everlast, matched as always with Norman McLeod, is Japan-built.
I’d love to learn more about this Windsor home, but the name on the facade is that of the Massachusetts-born founder of Canadian Club whisky.
Just north of Belle Isle, SS Ste. Claire, Boblo ferry sister of SS Columbia, marks Kean’s Marina.
And with night falling and work for me to do, we’ll leave this post only partway through the strait with Kaye E. Barker, once Benson Ford III. Notice the GMRenCen in the distance just forward of the front of the self-unloading arm? GMRenCen was built by Ford.
The return of daylight will find us in Lake Huron. To see the St. Clair River by daylight, click here. All photos and sentiments by Will Van Dorp.
The sinuous structures in the top photo depict Cedar Point as seen from a few miles out in the lake.
With digressions behind us, let’s resume the journey. In part 4 we descended from the level of the Mohawk at Rome NY into Lake Ontario, approximately 248.’ Canadian pilot boat Mrs C meets us not far from the entrance to the Welland Canal at Port Weller, so named for the lead engineer in building of the first iteration of the Welland Canal.
Below lock W1, Alouette Spirit tied at a dock. The mover is Wilf Seymour, a Canadian-flagged former Moran-owned Texas-built tug I’ve met on most trips here since 2015. I’ve seen her on locations between Lake Huron and the St Lawrence just up from Quebec City. Click here to see her being loaded with ingots.
ITB Presque Isle occupied the Port Weller Dry Docks.
So that you can get a sense of how ungainly this ITB looks out of the notch, I’m sharing this photo thanks to Jeff Thoreson of Erie Shipping News. Usually she’s in the notch and considered a 1000-footer.
Exiting lock W1 was China-built Algoma Mariner, whose bow shows the effect of operating in ice.
Notice how narrow the Welland is here, with less than 100′ between Grande Mariner and Algoma Mariner.
For more info on the Welland, click here.
I drove through Port Colborne–at the 571′ level of Lake Erie–a few years ago, but seeing the names of the shops here, I’d love to stop by and wander. I’m not fanatical about pies, but Jay the Pie Guy sounds too tasty to pass up. Check him out on FB.
Four months ago, I posted photos from Clayton NY on the dead ship tow of the former traversier aka ferry Camille Marcoux. Here’s what she looks like now after the
skilled carving tools of the workers at Marine Recycling Corp in Port Colborne.
See the scrapping in the upper right side of the photo, here the pilot steps off and we enter Lake Erie, turning to port for Buffalo.
After an hour-and-a-half run, the grain elevators of Buffalo welcome us. Seeing the blue G, I can already imagine the smell of the Cheerios plant.
Near the entrance to the Buffalo River, I spot NYPA’s Joncaire II tied up near the merry-go-round. I’d love to see her at work managing the ice boom. I don’t see Daniel on the bow, but I believe the full name is Daniel Joncaire II. ??
Over in Silo City, two older Great Lakes tugs–Washington and Vermont— await between jobs. Of course, they still work. The combined age of those two tug is 195 years. YEARS!!
Silo City may not sound all that exciting, especially for folks who know farms, but this complex made Buffalo and forged a link with another boom city . . . . the six boros of NYC. I like the quote here that it was grain elevators and the nexus of the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal that led Buffalo to surpass London, Rotterdam, and Crimea as then the #1 grain handling port in the world. I also recently learned about the influence the grain elevator form had on modern architecture a la Gropius.
Check out this Gropius design.
A few years ago, I’d never consider exploring Buffalo, and I have so many other photos that I might revisit the city on tugster, but for now, I suggest you go there too and
stop at Buffalo Harbor Museum, Pierce Arrow Museum, and Swannie’s, for starters. I started from Erie Basin and walked to all of these in the same day.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
In case you’re wondering which vessel(s) will be where, here’s the navy.mil listing. These photos are ordered in the sequence they passed lower Manhattan.
USCGC Hamilton WMSL-753,less than three years old, is home-ported in Charleston . . . and Seattle. How does that work?
RV Neil Armstrong AGOR-27 replaced the venerable RV Knorr, mentioned here once some years back.
USS Kearsarge LHD 3, named for a mountain I climbed decades ago, is the fourth in a line of vessels named for the US warship commanded by John A. Winslow that sank Confederate raider CSS Alabama, two of whose crew were Raphael Semmes and Irving S. Bulloch, off Cherbourg France in June 1864, less than a year before the end of the devastating US Civil War. This account of the Battle of Cherbourg is worth a read.
Our friends to the North always have a representation, and HMCS Glace Bay MM 701 is this year’s.
Glace Bay‘s classmate Moncton appeared on this blog back in 2012 here.
Four YPs are in town from Annapolis. Here are some YP photos from two years ago, different perspective.
Here’s YP 705.
And finally USNS Yuma T-EPF-8 is without a doubt the newest vessel in this procession, having been accepted earlier in 2017.
I wonder who the photographer in the yellow foulies is.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who will be wandering around town trying to get more closeups these next few days. And below is another shot of USS Kearsarge.
Here from Lock E-28A, Bob Stopper’s photo of Canal Corp’s efforts to get the Canal open for season 200!
The rest of these photos come from Jan van der Doe, starting with Sandra Mary, 1962, in McNally colors and built by Russel-Hipwell at Owen Sound in 1962.
W. N. Twolan, also 1962 built, alongside Menier Consol.
At the end and off the stern of W. N. Twolan, it’s the last side-wheeler ferry to operate on the Great Lakes, PS Trillium, launched in 1910. To see Trillium after a 1975 refit, click here.
In what I first thought was an unusual military dazzle pattern is actually a 1966 Davie Shipbuilding former cargo vessel that’s been reborn as a floating dry dock. Click here for Menier Consol transporting pulpwood.
Last but not least, it’s William Rest, 1961. Toronto Dry Dock is one of so many places I need to visit.
Many thanks to Bob and Jan for these photos.
Jake Van Reenen captured this procession yesterday on the upstream end of the Thousand Islands. The photos are not bright, but that’s appropriate for a trip of this sort.
The you see a ship with towlines fore and aft and new paint splotches that appear to be covering something . . .
it means only one thing . . . “…Le Marc…”
towed here by Jarrett M and Lois M (1945 and 1991)
used to be Quebec ferry Camille-Marcoux . . .
bound for Marine Recycling Corp in Port Colborne, ON. Maybe I’ll see parts of it there this summer when I pass the yard there.
And if you’re up at the south or upstream end of the Thousand Islands, say hi to Jake.
More old steel today and all from Jan van der Doe. I posted a stern view of the vessel below a few days ago . . . here’s more of the story, as much as I understand. Between 1944 and 1990, it had German, Belgian, and Dutch owners, both governmental and private. Since 1990, it’s been owned by Americans who keep it in Rotterdam.
The rest of these photos Jan took in Hamilton ON, and some of the boats
might be in greater jeopardy. Florence M, Tony MacKay, and James A. Hannah have all been on this blog before, and with some of the same company. One of these days, they may no longer be there, and they may no longer BE.
I gather these are Carrol C 1 and Bonnie B. from that same 2015 post.
Molly M I works for Nadro Marine and was built in 1962.
William is the name and Bermingham is the company here, and she’s almost 80 years old. Unrelated: What material is stored in the domes?
Many thanks to Jan for his updates from Rotterdam and Hamilton.
I’ve mentioned before that this is my miscellaneous category, although “everything” you pull out of your line locker or junk drawer is important for something, “miscellany” sounds dismissive.
Here’s how this post works: I’ll put in no comment until the second time through. Starting with the one below, see the man face mostly down in the small craft sculling with right hand. See the “cannon” forward, recoil preventer in place?
Someone’s altar?
I’d meant to include this a few weeks ago, but forgot.
And here . . . notice a splash of color where often you’d just read a phrase like “safety first” or “no smoking”? Ice waters below and
lock walls here.
“Yes!! I beat the ship,” thought he. But why’s he blowing the horn so much, a**hole!!@#, thought he.
And finally . . . ever stop into a Wawa for coffee? I’ll get back to that.
Reprise time. See the gun there? I paced it out at about nine feet long. It’s a punt gun, formerly used by “market hunters” in a host of flyways, including locally along Long Island. I finally visited the New York State Museum in Albany recently, and this is one of the displays. Much more about punt guns and sneak boxes here.
Nearby in the Museum, here’s a sixth boro diorama. Meseck boats came up in the previous line locker post also. And here’s the Carroll Towing post I’d wanted to include that 1946 clipping in.
And the painting on the forward side of the superstructure, here’s more on that CSL project to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the creation of an independent Canadian confederation. And if you ever wonder what the francophone Canadians call the “Canada goose,” it’s a bernache du Canada.
And that SUP racing to cross the river in front of a ship! It’s that season, and soon conditions like those that created a near-fatal incident last summer will present themselves again. Don’t be a statistic! Here’s James Berman’s article from Workboat magazine with the “wheelhouse perspective.”
And Wawa, I’d read this and let it slip through my fingers. They are having an ATB unit built. Nah . . . not to transport coffee, which is sold at their midAtlantic convenience store gas stations. I’m wondering what they’ll call it . . . Wawa One? Wawa Wanna cuppa? Watuppa?
All photos here by Will Van Dorp, who wishes you a happy and peaceful day..
When I first spotted this, I didn’t quite know what was happening.
Cold as it was, I’d put on enough layers to wait.
I’d call it path creating, not path finding,
Ocean Yvan Desgagnes opening the ice for Le Phil D, a 1961 Russel Brothers Ltd. vessel.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
This is looking down an 18% grade at L’Isle-aux-Coudres. Note the two ships–Algoma Mariner and an orange-hulled bunker called Federal Tyne–in the narrow channel. The river is much wider on the far side, but shallower. A photo of Federal Tyne appears at the end of this post. Tide is out.
Tidal fluctuation here is about nine feet.
See the stack markings on that tug?
It’s Felicia, built 1923 in Sorel, and hasn’t been McAllister since 1965.
I couldn’t get into the shipyard here, but I recognized these two boats . . .
Lampsilis (research) and Theodore (relaxation) from
June 2015 in Trois Rivieres and
Montreal.
Meanwhile, farther along the riverbanks but clearly for reflection, these shanties
accommodate folks who fish through holes.
Federal Tyne . . . I caught up with her here.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
And L’Isle-aux-Coudres, I have to get back there in summer.
Algoma Mariner (2011) heads upriver with a load of ore. This time of year and until the St. Lawrence Seaway opens, Montreal is the head of navigation, so that’s where the ore will be discharged and sent further by rail.
Pilot exchange at Quebec City is facilitated by Ocean Ross Gaudreault (ORG).
Minutes after the exchange, ORG (94′ x 37′) cuts a swath back to the base
using its 5000 hp through the freshwater ice that’s come down from
Back in September, I got these photos of the pilots’ exchange.
For some info on the Canadian Pilots, Laurentian Region, click here.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
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